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| Didax Newsletter |
| May 2010 |
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| "Reading Games" |
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| Didax "Class Ideas" Newsletter Archive |
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Ah, September! Everyone is settling back into the school routine here at Didax. But not only does September bring school, it also brings International Literacy Day, celebrated on the 8th. Started in 1967 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Literacy Day's aim is to focus attention on worldwide literacy. It is estimated that 860 million adults do not know how to read or write.
To bring literacy awareness into your classroom, we have an interesting article about teaching around the world and great Internet resources for learning more. There are also downloadable pages from our Literacy Lifters series, and as always, a subscriber-only special.
On a serious note, Didax would like to send its thoughts and well wishes to all who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina. We're thinking of all of the teachers and students, and everyone else, who are trying to recover from this tragedy.
Anna Mullen, Editor |
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| Teaching Literacy Around the World |
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 by Rebecca Graves
"Kuwait! Gosh you're brave," is usually the first thing people say to me when I tell them I'm working here. But the reality is far from the images portrayed in the media. The second question they ask is "How did you end up teaching there?" Some days I ask myself the same question.
After completing my education degree in 1997, I decided to head off on a teaching adventure to Auckland, New Zealand. The New Zealand education system is wonderfully supportive of beginning teachers, especially if you are from overseas. You are allocated a certain amount of time each week for professional development, which may include observing more experienced teachers, or attending curriculum or "beginning teachers" meetings. This time was very helpful in becoming familiar with the curriculum, particularly the New Zealand approach to literacy.
I taught in a Health Camp School where children are referred because of behavior problems, abuse, neglect, or extremely low self-esteem. The children boarded at the camp and attended our school during the day. While all curriculum areas were taught, we focused on literacy and numeracy.
We had wonderful literacy resources, as did most of the schools I had the pleasure of visiting while in New Zealand. Apart from the library, our reading resources were organized into reading ages. Regular running records ensured that key reading skills were targeted and reading materials were appropriate for each child.
The New Zealand curriculum has three strands?oral language (listening and speaking), written language (reading and writing) and visual language (viewing and presenting). Usually more than one curriculum area is incorporated into an activity, and as reading and writing are of central importance, they tend to be integrated into most lessons.
The whole-language approach and teaching phonics were combined, and reading, writing and spelling were often integrated. Generally, I would start the lesson with shared reading or writing, after which the children would move into their reading groups. I would work with one or two groups in a lesson on particular skills relevant to their work. Children might perform plays, recite poetry, conduct research, listen to pre-recorded story tapes or make their own, as well as reading nonfiction and fiction literature. The literacy lesson would take up about half of the morning session.
Writing was sometimes integrated with or based on the reading material. It could be based upon a particular theme we were investigating in another subject or on an upcoming or past even in the children's lives. Multimedia were used to increase interest and relevance.
After two years in New Zealand, it was time for another move. I decided to head to London. I contacted an agency called Spring Education who organized our police checks and advised us on visas as well as the UK curriculum.
After arriving in London, I contacted our agency and an interview was arranged to assess my suitability for placements and to provide me with information about the agency and the free courses they offered. I decided to attend the ones on the Literacy Hour and Numeracy Strategy.
The Literacy Hour is taught every school day across the UK and is very specific about the skills and genres that are to be taught in each year. It comprises of word (spelling), sentence (grammar) and text (reading and comprehension). Fifteen minutes was devoted to whole-class shared reading or writing, 15 minutes to whole-class word level work and 20 minutes of guided group and independent work in which the class would be split into five ability groups working on differentiated tasks. Finally, there was a 10-minute whole-class plenary session when the lesson would be discussed and evaluated. When the Literacy Hour was first introduced, the time allocations were rigidly enforced, but in the 18 months I spent teaching in the UK, it had begun to evolve. Teachers were freer to integrate skills and devote more or less time on a particular concept, depending on the needs of the class. In many ways, it had become more like the way I had taught in New Zealand.
With another English winter looming, I decided it was time to leave for warmer pastures. My friends had just been awarded positions teaching in an international school in Kuwait. The salary was tax free, with furnished accommodations and return airfares provided by the school. Another benefit was that as it was an English school, I wouldn't need to learn another curriculum.
The Oxford Academy, where I currently teach, is one of the cheaper private schools in Kuwait, so while some of the schools have resources to make any American school green with envy, it does not. Most of our students are Arab expatriates from countries such as Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey. Many Kuwaitis also choose to send their children to our school to receive an English education. The vast majority of the children speak English as a second language. This provides us with many challenges, as our textbooks come from England and use terminology familiar to native speakers of English. Much of our time is spent teaching the fundamentals of grammar and providing definitions of everyday words.
Most of the literacy we teach in the school is what we refer to as "textbook" teaching. The only real similarity to the English curriculum is that the books are produced in the UK. It bears little resemblance to the Literacy Hour.
The literacy curriculum consists of grammar, spelling, comprehension, reading and writing. There is a textbook for each skill besides writing, where we have some freedom to make the lesson relevant and interesting. We are also lucky to have a sufficient supply of graded readers. There is little differentiation as each class in the year group is expected to work on the same pages each week. Consequently, those children with little or no English skills are often left behind, unless they qualify for English as a Second Language support, which consists of two to three 40-minute sessions per week. Unfortunately, it is difficult to receive this support with only two ESL teachers in a school of approximately 700 students. The classes are streamed according to English ability. As a result of this and the curriculum, there are more behavioral problems in the lower streamed classes.
The reason the curriculum at this school had developed in this manner is because of the high staff turnover, lack of English resources and the demand by parents for regular tests. This is not the case in many of the schools in Kuwait.
There were many aspects of teaching in Kuwait that I was not prepared for. The main ones was the concept of a school being a money-making business. Most of the schools are run for profit, which generally means the more profit, the more resources and the higher the pay. But some seem particularly stingy. This can mean a constant battle for consumables such as glue sticks and tape. You can forget about equipment such as listening stations and counters!
I was also unprepared for the level of censorship. Pictures in textbooks have to be blocked out if the people are wearing limited clothing, which can make reading stories impossible and teaching topics such as Romans or Aztecs interesting! Also, any mention of Israel, pork, bacon, alcohol, or Anne Frank requires the black marker treatment.
I have taught in New Zealand, London and now Kuwait, and the main thing that I've learned is that children are children the world over. They respond to positive, consistent teachers and require an interesting literacy curriculum that addresses their needs. As for me, my next challenge is to come back home for a while where, in the years since I left, they have a new curriculum! |
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| Downloadable Activity Pages |
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 This month's free activity pages come from the Literacy Lifters series from World Teachers Press. These reproducible activities incorporate practical techniques for building reading and spelling skills and progress in difficulty. The books include cloze activities, phonics word studies, use of chunked words, drawing activities and more. The activities may be used from grades 1 through 12, depending on the needs of your students. |
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| International Literacy Day Internet Resources |
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 Each September, people in the U.S. and around the world celebrate International Literacy Day. In order to help you prepare to celebrate in your classroom, we have found two great websites which provide rich literacy activities. There are also links to more information about International Literacy Day itself from the International Reading Association and a site with an interesting site with statistics on international literacy rates. |
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| October Newsletter Theme: Character Counts! |
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 In honor of National Character Counts Week happening October 16-22, the next Class Ideas will be dedicated to Character Education. We'll bring you some great information on building students' character, some ready-to-use activities, a subscriber-only special and useful Internet links. |
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